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Why were prisoners who became too weak to work sent back to Birkenau?
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Auschwitz
The entrance gates to the Auschwitz concentration camp, near Kraków, Poland; the sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Liberates”).
At the Auschwitz complex, prisoners who were deemed able-bodied were utilized for forced labor in various subcamps and industrial facilities, such as those operated by IG Farben at Auschwitz III. These prisoners were subjected to brutal conditions, including minimal food, inadequate sanitation, and extreme overwork.
When prisoners became too weak, ill, or exhausted to continue working, they were no longer considered useful to the Nazi regime's labor-based exploitation. Consequently, they were sent back to Auschwitz II (Birkenau), which functioned as an extermination camp. At Birkenau, these individuals were murdered in the gas chambers as part of the systematic process of the Holocaust.12